"K.G.K., a candidate for the opposition coalition, leader of HDZ, will lead Croatia for the next five years. The difference between her and I.J. [the other candidate] is only a good percentage point[?]: between 18 and 20 thousand votes."

The phrase dobro ostotno točko seems to be either in the accusative or instrumental singular here. Which of these two cases would you say it is, and why isn't it in the nominative, i.e. Razlika je dobra odstotna točka? Would that have meant something slightly different?

The case is accusative, it can't be instrumental because the latter is always with prepositions and can't stand alone. And as for the reason why it's accusative and not nominative ... Hm, there is a slight difference, I think. The accusative makes it sound more abstract while the nominative is more concrete, ie. the difference was between the votes, not between them as human beings.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Največji sovražnik znanja ni nevednost, marveč iluzija znanja.

Ashucky wrote:The case is accusative, it can't be instrumental because the latter is always with prepositions and can't stand alone.

Hmm, I wouldn't have thought it could be the accusative either, since the preceding verb (je) is not transitive.

It's not really the direct object but more of a subject complement, which is usually in nominative but in the above example, accusative can go as well (mind you,though, that's more of a journalistic language and like miae said, most people would use nominative in the spoken everyday language).

Gavril wrote:Ulica je eno miljo.orNjegova zamisel je bila polomijo.

Hvala še enkrat

Both examples are incorrect. However, the first example can have accusative if you include "dolg" (long):Ulica je dolga eno miljo.

The adjective "dolga" is in nominative, followed by accusative. But this is more of a special construction. I think there are a few such constructions but I can't think of any more examples right now. Be careful, though, because if you change the number, the case of the following noun changes as well; the accusative only works for "ena" (one): dolga eno miljo, dolga dve milji, dolga tri/štiri milje, dolga pet milj, etc.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Največji sovražnik znanja ni nevednost, marveč iluzija znanja.